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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Shorter delays forecast for L.A.-area ports

By Gerg Bauman
Bloomberg News Service

LOS ANGELES — Delays at the California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, adjacent harbors that form the busiest shipping point in the U.S., won't be as long as last year's waits, shipping companies and terminal operators said yesterday.

Shipments during the busy season, which starts in June may be held up at the ports for two or three days, Frank Baragona, president of cargo carrier CMA CGM (America) Inc., said at a conference in Long Beach.

"Last year we had delays in excess of a week," said Doug Tilden, chief executive of Oakland, Calif.-based Marine Terminals Corp. "That's clearly not going to happen this year. We are going to have delays but not of the magnitude of last year."

The forecasts reflect progress terminal operators and railroads have made hiring workers to unload cargo, which last year sat loaded at anchor as long as 10 days. Traffic through the Southern California harbors is forecast to rise 12 percent this year to 14.7 million containers, and some shippers, including Nike Inc., are moving goods through other ports.

Progress in easing the delays may be stymied by a potential lack of truck drivers, said Bob Curry, chief executive of California Multimodal Inc., a trucking company based near Los Angeles in Compton.

"There's a shortage of trucks nationwide and the shortage at the ports is even worse," Curry said.

The ports will open gates on July 23 to allow ground shipping on nights and weekends that will lighten daytime traffic on Southern California roads

Inaccurate predictions about cargo traffic last year lulled shipping clients, cargo carriers and marine terminal operators, contributing to the backlog, said Jim McKenna, president of the San Francisco-based Pacific Maritime Association.